New tricks conjured to dupe E-POS machines

Posted November 5th, 2018, 09:40 AM IST

Thrissur: Even though the implementation of E-POS machine has brought down the diversion of food grains from warehouses and ration shops considerably, some outlets here complain that they were getting sacks weighing 5 to 8 kg less than the usual weight from warehouses of civil supplies department.

The other issue is that of tapering with bags containing grains with FCI tag which is mandatory.

Both point to the possibility of diversions even after the putting in place E-POS machines aimed at completely wiping off corruption in the public distribution system.

"While we take our stock from the civil supplies warehouse, the concerned Supplyco staffer who verifies the weight is not keen on marking the exact weight, and often several sacks of grains are loaded without weighing," Kunju Moidu, a ration shop licensee at Mullakkara near Mannuthy here, said.

Some of the 50 kg rice sacks he received weigh only 42 to 47 kg causing issues for maintaining exact stock for him. He has already taken up the matter with godown managers.

However, a top civil supplies official in Thrissur Taluk told DC that he was aware of the issue, but when he raised it in the review meeting chaired by the collector, none of the ration shop owners came forward to give a written complaint.

Billing tricks
He also that the other issue was that of the ration shops making bills for all the items which allotted for the cardholders and collecting money from them for only what they need.

"The surplus good quality grains are then diverted to the private mills by collecting amounts which will be much higher than the civil supplies rates," the officer said. Only vigilant cardholders could prevent such diversion through ration shops, they say.